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Figuring Out How Children Learn With Technology

Schools are stocking classrooms with computers. And outside of school, children are increasingly glued to screens, be they on phones, personal computers or TVs hooked to gaming consoles.

Are they learning? In which environments? Under which conditions?

In an article last weekend, we explored how the push to digitize America’s classrooms was happening even as research remained mixed about the effectiveness of computers as learning tools. Many educators and policy makers wrote to me in response to the article to say they were keen to find clearer answers.

One interesting note came from SCE, short for the Susan Crown Exchange, a nonprofit foundation that has begun investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in projects aimed at discovering what works when it comes to technology and learning. The idea is to ask a more basic question than “what works in schools,” but to get at the question of how and where and when children learn best from computers.

Children are spending an increasing amount of time in front of screens, said Ryan Blitstein, executive director of the foundation. “There are two ways to look at it,” he said. “We can either say, ‘oh my gosh, we’re in trouble,’ or we can say, ‘this is an opportunity.'”

The foundation is supporting, among other projects, continuing research by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that is developing a rating system for parents interested in buying educational software. That system will be introduced next year, Mr. Blitstein said.

“Billions of dollars worth of products are being purchased,” Mr. Blitstein said, referring to software and hardware aimed at teaching children. “But parents are making decisions based not on good information but what marketers say.”

With the Common Sense project and others the foundation is supporting, the idea is to explore whether there are keys to understanding learning behavior in activities that may not be aimed at teaching in the first place. For instance, he said, players of World of Warcraft might be learning leadership and collaboration skills. Or, he said, anecdotal evidence suggests that children who spend a lot of time communicating online might be developing reading and writing skills that are not translating to standardized tests.

“We want to learn how much of this stuff is anecdotal and how much isn’t. And to the extent learning is taking place, can that be transferred into schools, and real-life skills?”